Rapport Case Study

The purpose of the current study was to operationally define rapport as it related to early intervention for children with autism as well as to train behavior analytic service providers to implement presession pairing skills at an appropriate rate. Six staff members of a Midwestern university based clinic for toddlers with autism that were trained to use precession pairing skills. Three had limited experience working with individuals with ASD and happened to be enrolled at the local university as undergraduates. The other three participants were graduate students in the field of behavior analysis.
In order to evaluate staff performance and acquisition, a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design was utilized. The group of undergraduates and group of graduates each made up their own baseline. Frequency was used to measure praise, imitate, describe, initiate, and create skills (10 per skill, per session). 30-s whole interval was used to measure proximity. Participants were required to be within arm’s reach of the client for each interval. Percentage of opportunities was used to measure reflect. Participants were required to reflect on every
It is essential to build rapport for therapeutic relationships between health-service professionals and the clients they work with. Presession pairing is often recommended to build that rapport although some may not be sure what that all entails, furthermore, they may be doing it incorrectly. My discussion questions for classmates include: Consider the statement by James Comer, “No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.” Using the presession pairing skills discussed in this study, how do you think building rapport affects the development of therapeutic relationship? Furthermore, how do you think this applies when working specifically with individuals with ASD who struggle in the realm of social communication and relationship